Til It Hurts
by lokogato
Summary: This was originally intended as a one-shot ... but the plot developed a few subplots ... and the subplots developed subplots of their own ... and so on ... anyways. YAOI warning in effect! Kissing, 3x4 possible offstage activities, y'know the drill. multi
1. Default Chapter

Lokogato: Whoohoo! A/Ns! What fun! Nuthin' much changed here, 'cept that we're pretendin' that Endless Waltz neva happened, and the Gundam pilots ended up workin' for da Preventers. No Gundam destroyin' eva happened! Yay! ¬_¬' Duo: And I get to glomp Hee-chan! ^^ Heero: *groans* Lokogato: Sugar? *holds out brown paper bag full of . you guessed it, pure sugar!* I suggest you have sumthin' sweet/caffeine-y for this fic! And for those of you that dun know what the warnings on the summary mean (yes . I was once that innocent too . ) this is PG-13 becuz of some death flashbacks, kissing, and _suggested_, mind you . _suggested_ behind-the- scenes not-quite-so-innocent going-ons between Tro-chan and Quat-chan . and possibly Hee-chan and Duo-kun . poor, poor Wuffie-sama . anyways. Yupperz, and of course, YAOI warnings! Yaoi is also known as shounen-ai . boy/boy love . yeah, yeah . to put it simply . GAY PPL!! . 1x2, or Heero and Duo and 3x4, Trowa and Quatre! And Wuffie-sama all by himself in the background . scheming to . get Duo and Heero together?! Wufei: Just stop talking and let them read the fic! Lokogato: oh. Right. Heh . ^^;; . anyways . on with the ficcie!  
  
  
  
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'Til It Hurts  
  
"Heero!"  
  
A long brown braid swung crazily and a pair of cobalt blue eyes tinged with amethyst sparkled mischievously as the hyperactive ball of slightly sadistic energy that labeled itself Duo Maxwell jumped onto the unfortunate Japanese pilot's back. "I'm right here!" Duo mimicked in a high, shrill voice. "Come and get me!"  
  
The shorter-haired boy that had been attacked sighed, completely cobalt blue eyes flashing annoyance and amusement. "You're back." He stated, his usual simple, to the point sentences, nearly trademarked of Heero Yuy.  
  
"Aw!" Duo pouted. "What's up with the monosyllables again? So boring!"  
  
"You're back, Duo." Heero replied sarcastically.  
  
Duo let go of Heero and sat down at his place, heaving a loud, dramatic sigh. "The first time I really get to participate in anything important, do I get to hang around people that talk and/or are normal? No, I get the complete anti-socials, the crazy sexists, and the peace-lover that goes psycho whenever he hits ZERO ." He muttered.  
  
The Chinese boy (the aforementioned crazy sexist), Chang Wufei, gripped the handle of his spoon a little tighter, finished his bowl of rice a little faster, and left the table angrily, his form of silent protest that Duo was back in full force.  
  
Trowa Barton's emerald eyes registered a faint disappointment that the peace and quiet of an otherwise pleasant morning had been disturbed by the American's return from his latest mission, and then reverted to the customary emotionless shade that was usually seen. His mouth curved into a barely detectable wry smile at the braided boy's performance.  
  
A platinum blonde flinched at the mention of the 'peace-lover that goes psycho whenever he hits ZERO', and laughed a little nervously to fill the silence that followed Duo's more than noticeable entrance to the kitchen. "Uh . welcome back?" Quatre Raberba Winner ventured, earning a strange look from everyone in the room with the exception of Duo.  
  
"At least there's ONE person who can appreciate a little energy." Duo sniffed. Heero simply shrugged.  
  
"I'm wondering why you got that difficult a mission, instead of one of us, who've grown up with Gundams." He commented. Duo grinned and wagged a finger playfully at Heero.  
  
"Well, hacking's what I am, and that mission required unbelievable amounts of hacking." Duo stated.  
  
"You're not the only hacker in the group, you know, Duo." Heero said. "Why'd you really get to go?"  
  
"Humph." Duo pouted. "You're no fun. I got to go 'cause there was some stuff that needed to be stolen and not attacked, and I was the natural choice." He said, before grabbing his spoon and beginning to shovel his rice into his mouth.  
  
"Stolen? So why were you the 'natural choice'?" Heero asked, his interest piquing. No one really knew anything about Duo's past, or even Duo, for that matter, and he remained, even a year after they had all met, a mystery.  
  
Duo glanced up from filling another bowl of rice. "Because."  
  
"Because.?"  
  
"Because." Duo affirmed, before starting to eat again. "Oh . yeah ." He said between swallows. "Speaking of . missions ." He stopped speaking to finish the bowl.  
  
"Speaking of missions . what?" Heero said, now fully interested with the use of the magic word.  
  
"Speaking of missions ." Duo said as he started to attack slice of bread with an overloaded butter knife. "I got a mission briefing just before I started back here ." He took a large bite of the toast and grimaced slightly. "I think your butter is a little salty, Q-man." Upon delivering this revelation, he grabbed the jam spoon and started to slather the already drowning-in-butter bread in strawberry jam.  
  
"And.?" Heero demanded, angry that Duo wasn't getting to the point, despite the fact that he was wondering how Duo could handle so many different foods from different cultures at the same time.  
  
"Une gave us five a mission, starting in a week. That woman is crazy with this whole being the head of the Preventers thing and all. She loves giving out orders . I don't even think it'll turn out to be something big." He said, before biting into the toast. "Much better." He commented, before going at it in full force. Trowa sighed, placed his spoon in his empty bowl, deposited the bowl and spoon in the sink, and left, followed shortly by Quatre, who was eager to get away from the explosions that were sure to come.  
  
"What kind of mission?" Heero asked.  
  
"Can't you wait until I finish dinner?" Duo demanded, still playful, but hinting towards anger. "Geez, can't a guy eat a little food around here?"  
  
"A 'little' food, Duo?" Heero asked skeptically, his eyebrows disappearing underneath messy brown hair as he gazed upon the large bowl of rice, mound of toast, and plate stacked sky-high of just food in general, sitting in front of Duo, all of which were rapidly diminishing.  
  
"A little." Duo confirmed.  
  
*** *** *** a few hours later  
  
"Details, c'mon, guys, details!" Duo grinned, his cobalt-amethyst eyes sparkling with nearly childish delight and mischief. "If you get together while I'm gone, at least have the courtesy to tell me something!" Trowa shifted uncomfortably, and Quatre turned the same shade of pink as his loose-fitting shirt.  
  
"Well . it's kinda long ." He stalled. Duo smiled a settled a little more comfortably into the bed he was sitting on, which was actually Heero's. Heero was glaring at him from his spot on the same bed, but being ignored.  
  
"We've lots of time." The American said. "Shoot."  
  
"Um ." Quatre fidgeted. "Well . Trowa, why don't you tell it?" He said suddenly. Trowa looked slightly stunned, but sighed and relented to the nervous smile of the younger pilot.  
  
"We were talking one night and the subject of being gay came up somehow, and it . well . burst out." He said shortly. Duo cocked his head, his long braid swinging dramatically with the motion.  
  
"Who brought up the subject?" He inquired.  
  
"I did." Heero said. "Happy now?" He added, losing Wufei, Quatre, and Trowa with the last two words.  
  
"Yup!" Duo said happily. "Ninmu kanryu!" He said in heavily accented Japanese, holding up two fingers in a V for 'victory'.  
  
"What's that?" Heero said lazily, his eyelids heavy, despite the fact that he was struggling to stay awake. In his present state of being half-asleep, and half-awake, he was considerably more amiable than in his usual alert condition. "Maxwell, are you stealing my lines?"  
  
"Sure am!" He grinned, before bouncing off the bed to his bag, which was sitting by his own bedpost, and reaching in to grab a towel. Quatre and Trowa stared, surprised that it had been Duo and Heero's doing that they were together.  
  
None of the Gundam pilots left anything lying around, even towels and toothbrushes. When they left an area, they had a habit of leaving it as if they had never been there, Duo and Heero in particular. "Well, I'm going to wash up and hit the sack. Anyone want to go before I wash my hair?" Duo added. Everyone shook their heads, and he walked into the bathroom and shut the door. As soon as they were sure that he couldn't hear them, the other four pilots began a hurried discussion.  
  
"What do we know about his past now?" Quatre asked. "Something or somebody did his braid, and he doesn't like it out, his past had something to do with the church, which is why he always has that cross, he's an orphan, and he's good at stealing things. That's not much to go by." Heero sighed.  
  
"I still don't understand why you guys have to go and pry into his prior life when he obviously doesn't want you to. Maybe he just wants to forget about it, and digging into it isn't going to help matters." He said wisely.  
  
"We just want to find out about why he's so secretive about it." Wufei insisted.  
  
"Have you considered he might be secretive about it because it was ludicrous, or illegal, or whatever?" Heero demanded. "I mean, what if he was a goddamn child prostitute or something? Who would want to remember that, or let other people know that they were one?"  
  
"Very well put, Heero." A familiar voice said. Everyone looked in surprise at Duo, who was standing in the doorframe.  
  
"D-duo!" Quatre said nervously. "That was . uh . fast!" He hedged.  
  
"No, I'm not that fast." Duo laughed, the usually pleasant sound shot through with ice. "I just came back for my toothbrush. I forgot it." He took the black toothbrush out of his bag, and headed back towards the washroom. "Oh, and-" He said, his eyes hardening to an almost God of Death shade, the amethyst nearly disappearing into the cobalt blue. "About my past. Kindly keep your noses out." He said bitingly, before disappearing into the washroom.  
  
Quatre blinked. "Um . that didn't really go all that well?" He managed. Everyone except Heero burst into nervous laughter, which lasted several minutes.  
  
"Well, I hate to say I told you so . but I told you so." He said placidly, before starting change into his sleepwear.  
  
"Give the boy a prize- he tried to joke." Wufei said dryly, before copying Heero's example and starting to change. Quatre blinked at Trowa who smiled amusedly. They both began to change as well.  
  
When Duo finally came out of the washroom, twisting his long, nearly unmanageable hair into the customary braid, everyone was almost asleep.  
  
"Duo?" Quatre murmured sleepily.  
  
"Yeah, Q-man?"  
  
"'M sorry . for prying ." He said softly, before finally dozing off.  
  
Duo smiled at the small, innocent-looking pilot. "No prob, kiddo." His eyes, in the dark, turned into two hard, cold, cobalt orbs, the amethyst truly disappearing this time, as he remembered images of life on L2. Heero shifted in his bed slightly, and sat up.  
  
"Duo?" He said softly.  
  
"Hmm?" Duo sat on his own bed, putting a black holder at the end of the braid.  
  
"Where's the mission going to be?"  
  
Duo was silent for a moment, and if Heero had been able to see his eyes, he would have seen a shade of true violet anguish flit through them, before they reverted to normal. "L2." He said shortly, before pulling the covers over himself and curling up to go to sleep. Heero cocked his head, but went back to sleep. 


	2. ~TWO~

*** *** *** next morning  
  
Heero stumbled groggily to the washroom and splashed water on his face. "Curse Odin and his habit of waking up at dawn." He grumbled, despite the fact that he knew it was as much his own fault that it was his habit now as Odin Lowe's. Walking back into the room, he was struck by the way Duo's face looked when it was relaxed and asleep.  
  
Dawn's first rays fell gently through large, glass, windows covered by flimsy white curtains, which had been Quatre's sisters' design originally, and Quatre hadn't yet gotten around to changing them. The faintly golden, slightly pink light hit the braided boy's face at just the right angle, softening the usually hard features into faintly pastel sweetness. The long, feminine eyelashes were unusually accented, the shadow cast on his pale cheeks dark and prominent, the rare expression of vulnerable trust on the boy's elfin white face making him seem ethereal, almost like a female. The radiance of the sun's first appearance of the day painted his usually almost dull brown hair into a glimmering fire of gold, copper, bronze, and even a streak of silver here and there.  
  
Heero suddenly felt a strange, compelling curiosity to see what position Duo slept in, and he walked over to the bed, his shadow falling over Duo's face and putting it into a darker, more mysterious, and even slightly sinister light. The blankets were pulled up almost over his ears, and his braid disappeared underneath. "Come on, Duo." He said softly. "Time to wake up." He touched the soft bangs softly, almost afraid that the instant the perfect figure in front of him was marred by a touch from a human like himself, Duo would vaporize into nothingness. "Wake up." He said.  
  
Duo murmured something unintelligible under his breath, and snuggled a little deeper into his blankets.  
  
"What was that?" Heero asked.  
  
"'S not time to get up yet." He said a little louder, his voice sleepy.  
  
"Ohayo to you too, Duo." Heero said, a little bit less gentle as before. He finally gave up, after several tries, and just yanked the blankets off the slight body in front of him. "I said wake up, Duo." Duo immediately curled up a little tighter, trying to keep some of the warmth from the blankets in his body. When Heero saw the position Duo was in, he nearly laughed out loud.  
  
Duo was curled up tightly, his arms crossed over his chest, one hand holding his braid loosely, and the other holding something small and silver. His cross. The position was so like that of a little child with a favorite stuffed toy that it made Duo even more innocent-looking than the wisps of hair that had escaped from his braid and framed his face like a halo already did. Heero chuckled as he picked Duo up in what the American had jokingly termed 'superhumanly strong' arms, and headed to the washroom to duck his head in ice-cold water.  
  
The inhuman shriek that resounded throughout the mansion woke everyone inside up instantly, startled several passerby and the early-rising gardeners, and nearly deafened Heero, who was right beside the thing that the sound came from. In fact, holding him down while he struggled to reach Heero's neck in order to strangle him.  
  
"Yuy, you are so goin' DOWN!!!" Duo yelled as he wriggled out of Heero's grasp by pure luck and started to chase him around the room. Heero sighed as he ran, knowing that even if Duo did manage to catch him, which he probably would, Duo wouldn't really hurt him . all that much .  
  
Quatre removed his pillow and blankets from around his head and looked cautiously out from his bed. Upon seeing Duo and Heero on a wild rampage throughout the room, he smiled. At least this little bit of the morning would be normal. After they managed to calm Duo, and tend to as many of their inevitable wounds as possible, they would begin a wild dance of packing, clearing the room, removing all trace of their occupation here, and finally slipping into carrier planes and flying off in the guise of peaceful missionaries carrying supplies to the impoverished colony L2.  
  
*** *** *** half an hour later  
  
Heero's cobalt eyes watched Duo as inconspicuously as he could manage as Quatre dabbed at a scratch on his shoulder, created when Duo tackled him and he hit the ground. The alcohol stung, and he almost winced as Quatre applied it as gently as possible to the slightly bloody area. Almost.  
  
"Maxwell, you are a menace to society." He muttered under his breath.  
  
"What was that, Yuy?" Duo said dangerously, not even flinching as Trowa patted at the scrape on his elbow, created when Heero had rolled him over and he had hit against the wall.  
  
Heero sighed. "Nothing, Maxwell."  
  
Despite the seeming severity of the situation, Wufei knew that the two of them would be on first name terms again by lunch. It was Heero and Duo, after all. And even if Heero didn't forget, Duo would seem to by then, and then what choice did Heero really have but comply with his wishes? For even Wufei had noticed how powerless the Perfect Soldier was against a simple pleading glance from the God of Death. It was ironic, really. So ironic.  
  
Duo turned to Trowa and thanked him with a smile and a nod, the elusive ability of being still social and lovable without having to speak that he had managed to perfect. He turned away from the other pilots, despite the fact that it wouldn't have mattered even if he had undressed in front of them. The loose, black pajama top was almost completely unbuttoned when he suddenly turned around and started to search around the room with his eyes, revealing a lean, muscular chest, and finely toned skin. A frown marred his features as he started towards the end of the room where he had tackled Heero to the ground, still searching for something.  
  
The frown deepened as he didn't find what he was looking for at the site of the fall, and it wasn't until he retrieved the object carefully from the heating grate that it had nearly disappeared into. He dusted off the smooth, worn front of his silver cross and placed at around his neck again, and turned back to the other pilots.  
  
"I thought I saw something silver go flying." Heero commented, trying to avert his eyes from Duo's well-toned skin.  
  
"And you didn't tell me?" Duo complained, returning to his place by his bed. Suddenly, he veered off course and came over to where Heero was still being tended to by Quatre. His eyes narrowed. "Next time you see anything of mine, Yuy, tell me." He hissed, doing a close impression of what he himself had dubbed the 'Heero Yuy Glare of Death', but then, just as suddenly, grinning and returning to his bedside.  
  
Heero frowned again. Duo was strange today, the way his eyes seemed different, despite the obvious attempt to seem normal. Instead of registering the cheery indifference they usually did, they were a cold, foreign shade of more cobalt than violet. The shade that appeared only when he was the God of Death, or extremely angry. Or maybe . sadness?  
  
*** *** *** another half hour later  
  
The great, booming peals of the doorbell shuddered throughout the mansion, and Duo jumped up happily from where he was demolishing every scrap of food in sight. "Stuff's here!" He said, grinning pleasantly before disappearing in the direction of the main hall. Quatre blinked at him, the God of Death having vanished slightly too fast for the still somewhat asleep boy to comprehend.  
  
After a moment of silence, he said, "Do you think I should have told him that the butler would see to it?" Trowa and Wufei stared at him for a moment, neither of them being early morning people, and had to think hard to figure out what the words meant.  
  
"Nah." Wufei said decisively, after another long pause, and then silence reigned again.  
  
Quatre shifted uncomfortably in his chair, Trowa blew inconspicuously at his long bangs, and Wufei tried not to crunch his cereal quite as loudly as he normally would have, the minute sounds falling like thunder on the stifling silence, and Heero looked from person to person in faint amusement.  
  
All of a sudden, as he was wont to do, Duo appeared in the doorway again, his voice turning the silence into a tornado of words and sentences. "Hey, guess what? We got a friar to deliver our stuff! They must hold us in pretty high esteem for that!" He said happily, plopping himself down at his spot beside Heero and promptly turning into the human vacuum cleaner again.  
  
"In this way, please." The butler said courteously, casting a wary glance in Duo's direction. Duo winked and waved cheerily, causing the butler to exit the room perhaps a little quicker than usual.  
  
The nervous looking little friar was dressed in drab brown robes and bore a cross on a chain around his neck similar to the one Duo wore. The man glanced from right to left, then at the pilots sitting expectantly at the table, and then at Duo, who was finally slowing down on his food intake somewhat and was now nibbling on a piece of bacon while regarding the friar interestedly.  
  
"Hi," said the friar. The Gundam pilots stared. "Um . I came to deliver your stuff." More stares. "Uh . I'm Friar John." Blinks.  
  
"Uh . good morning." Quatre said, uncomfortable at the silence, and especially at the fact that the usually lively Duo was staring intently, and, more importantly, wordlessly, at the small package that 'Friar John' was carrying.  
  
"Um . I'll just leave the carrier outside on the landing strip?" The now- terrified little man said quickly. Quatre nodded politely, and Friar John fairly ran from the room. Duo stood up and walked over to where the man had left the package and carefully picked it up, setting it on the table. He pursed his lips for a moment, and then grinned cheerily.  
  
"Five bucks that it's a Bible!" He said. Wufei blinked. Trowa blinked. Quatre stared.  
  
"Five on a bomb." Heero suggested. With the silence broken and ten dollars as an incentive, the bets came pouring in.  
  
"Five on video."  
  
"Five that it's a box of something."  
  
Duo shook his head at all of the ideas, and spoke again. "I still think it's a Bible. What about you, Q-man?" Quatre nodded briefly, and Duo peeled the brown paper off, revealing a plain black cover and The Holy Bible written in flowing, fancy, gold script in the middle. "Fifteen bucks to me and Q-man!" Duo crowed. Wufei growled at him and tossed a ten and a five in his direction and the same at a disturbingly smug-looking Quatre. Trowa muttered something at his hair and copied Wufei's example. Heero picked up his wallet, pulled out a wad of bills and pretended to laboriously count out thirty dollars in dollar bills.  
  
"Here." He said, holding out the thick pile. Duo frowned, but then almost danced his way to Heero's side, holding his arm down with just a light touch and sorted through the slips of paper until he found what he was looking for, a twenty-dollar bill. Heero frowned. "That's a twenty, Maxwell." He said venomously. Duo turned to look innocently at him, but when he spoke his voice matched Heero's, belying his expression.  
  
"Five for bad sportsmanship, Yuy." He said, while at the same time Quatre tossed back a mound of fifteen one-dollar bills. Heero snarled at him, but Duo ignored him and wove his way skillfully through the bags on the floor, holding his money aloft, and managing to swipe the Bible at the same time.  
  
"Oi! Matte!" Heero called after the retreating brunette, forgetting that he didn't know any Japanese. Duo paused, the money still high in the air, the Bible in the other hand, and turned to stare confusedly at Heero. Heero sighed, mentally berated himself for his absentminded mistake, and repeated his last command in English. "Wait." He said. Duo blinked at him, and then grinned wickedly and continued to make for the door. "Where, may I ask, are you going, Maxwell? We leave in half an hour."  
  
Duo exhaled noisily. "I know we're leaving in half an hour, Yuy. After all, it was me who received the mission briefing, remember?" He turned for the door once again, then paused. "Q-man?"  
  
"Hmm?" Quatre said, sipping at a glass of tea.  
  
"You didn't forget the tin foil, did you?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, no, it's here."  
  
"Okay." Duo didn't bother to explain the conversation and disappeared out the door. Heero stared after the American pilot and turned to Quatre.  
  
"Tin foil?"  
  
Quatre shrugged nonchalantly, the tea's caffeine having successfully woken him. "Don't ask me. Something about disguising gundanium alloy, I didn't really get the gist of his explanation. He was speaking a bit too fast."  
  
Heero muttered under his breath and started for the door, only to be stopped by Trowa. "You do realize that by going after him you're making it even more obvious than it already is." A pair of cobalt eyes turned to him, a frown on his face and confusion written in his stance.  
  
"Nani?"  
  
For the second time in five minutes, Heero was stared at like he had suddenly sprouted a second head and fifth limb. Also for the second time, in the same amount of minutes, Heero mentally yelled at himself for speaking in a language none of the other pilots understood.  
  
"What." He translated. Trowa blinked and settled a little more comfortably in his chair, Quatre sighed and inched his chair towards the Heavyarms pilot, and Wufei grumbled and slid down in his chair, all three of them looking as if they were in for a long, long, discussion.  
  
"Well . why don't you sit down and let us explain ." 


End file.
